IN THE 20 years they have worked together, Tim Burton has given Johnny Depp seven starring roles and an Oscar nomination.

IN THE 20 years they have worked together, Tim Burton has given Johnny Depp seven starring roles and an Oscar nomination.

And what has Johnny given his favourite director in return?

A DVD box set of The Wiggles.

Johnny is particularly pleased to have introduced his friend to the wonders of the all-singing, all-dancing children’s entertainers.

Talking about how their relationship has developed over two decades, Johnny says that becoming fathers has changed them both.

“When grown men start changing nappies, you discuss it,” smiles the father of 10-year-old Lily-Rose and Jack, seven, his children with French partner Vanessa Paradis.

“One of the things I’m proudest to say is that I was the first person to give Tim the full DVD set of The Wiggles.

“We have certainly got closer, but in terms of the work it hasn’t changed for one second since Edward Scissorhands.

“There was always a shorthand there. Tim would turn his head a certain way or squint his eyes and I’d know what he wants and say ‘Yeah, I get it’.

“He is my favourite mad person, because he gives me jobs. It’s a madness which works for him, obviously.

“I’ve always admired him for his commitment to his vision, the impossibility of compromise and for doing exactly what he wants in his unique way. He’s one of the true artists working in cinema.”

The subject of Tim’s sanity comes up because Johnny is playing the Mad Hatter in Alice In Wonderland.

Sitting in a London hotel room, looking relaxed in a black shirt, waistcoat and beads – plus grey fedora hat – Johnny appears very different from his wacky appearance on film.

His orange hair, bright green eyes and oddly wandering accent weren’t just thrown together, but carefully planned by Johnny in much the same way he devised what Captain Jack Sparrow would look like in Pirates of the Caribbean.

“I felt very strongly about how he should look and behave. I drew a watercolour of the Hatter and we developed the look from there,” reveals the man who appears much younger than his 46 years.

“His orange hair is there for a reason. I did some research into 19th century hat makers and discovered that the term ‘mad as a hatter’ came about because they suffered from mercury poisoning.

“The glue they used was toxic and contained a high mercury content which stained their hands, poisoned them and sent them nuts. There was an orange tinge to the stuff.

“I also wanted to show the extreme sides of the Mad Hatter’s personality – one minute he’s at full rage, the next you’ve dropped into some kind of horrific tailspin of fear, then up to the heights of levity.

“I didn’t just want him going nuts for laughs, there should be some trauma there. He’s been damaged.”

Johnny has been a fan of Alice In Wonderland since he read the Lewis Carroll novel at the age of five.

“The story is so abstract and all over the place, but what I remember more than anything are the characters and how they stick with you. Even people who haven’t read the book know all these characters, they’re an iconic part of our culture.

“I think Lewis Carroll would be ecstatic about this movie, because it’s done with such respect and is rooted deeply in the original material.”

Not that Johnny has actually seen the film himself. Even though he’s consistently voted one of the world’s sexiest men, whose work is watched by millions of fans, he’s remarkably modest about his looks and talent. He hates looking at himself and avoids watching his movies.

“But my children have seen Alice, I send them out there on the frontlines,” he says.

“And they absolutely loved it and went crazy quoting lines from it.”

Another young fan of the film is two-year-old Nell Burton, the daughter of Tim and his partner Helena Bonham Carter, who he cast as Alice’s adversary, the tyrannical, huge-headed Red Queen.

Helena, who met Tim on the set of Planet of the Apes in 2001, took inspiration for her performance from Nell.

“The Red Queen is just like a toddler, because she’s got a big head and she’s a tyrant. Toddlers have no sympathy for any living creature.

“That’s our toddler, Nell just bosses us around with no please or thank yous. It’s ‘Mummy, come here’, ‘Mummy, carry me’. It’s all about her, she never considers us.

“Nell is up for anything. She was watching her daddy on breakfast TV but what she really wanted to see were the monsters again.

“Her brother Billy is six and is more sensitive, it could be a disaster when he sees me with a giant head. That might frighten him!”

Watching Johnny, Tim and Helena together, it’s clear they all get on well.

The actors have worked together on three of Tim’s films – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd.

Helena smiles as she remembers walking on to the Alice set for the first time, after three hours in make-up, dressed as the Red Queen.

“Johnny laughed at me,” she says. “That often happens, it’s like ‘what has he made you do now?’

“But I like being disfigured and being employed to look different. Tim clearly feels my head is too small!

“It makes complete sense that the Red Queen should want to chop everyone’s heads off because she is jealous of normal-sized heads. It was good fun, shouting so much, but I lost my voice pretty much every day by 10am. It’s quite exhausting, losing your temper all the time.”

Johnny has now moved on to new projects but says: “You always miss your characters when you’ve walked away.”

He’s finished The Rum Diary, based on Hunter S. Thompson’s novel about a journalist writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean.

He’s currently filming the thriller The Tourist with Angelina Jolie, and then comes a return to Captain Jack Sparrow in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film, On Stranger Tides.

But despite all the critical acclaim, he seems a little bemused by his success and eternally grateful to still be working.

“It’s a miracle that people still hire me after some of the stuff I’ve got away with, honestly!

“Before everything changed for me with Pirates of the Caribbean, they called me box office poison.

“And every time out of the gate, there’s always someone who goes ‘Jesus, what’s he doing now?’.

“But I feel like I’ve sort of infiltrated the enemy camp and made it through.

“Suddenly Tim doesn’t have to fight with studios to get me the gig any more, which he had to for many years.

“My recipe for success? It’s just luck really. I have been very lucky.”